The
Dragon has long been dissolved into his component scales, and we never
have impromptu performances now. The passing fame which a terrible
railway accident gave to our insignificant station has also faded. But
it set a seal on our good resolutions which I may honestly say has not
been lightly broken.
There, on the very spot where I had almost resolved never to forgive
Philip, never to try to heal the miserable wounds of the family peace,
I learned the news of the accident in which he might have been
killed. Philip says that if anything could make him behave better to
me it is the thought that I saved his life, as he calls it. But if
anything could help me to be good to him, surely it must be the
remembrance of how nearly I did not save him.
I put Alice on an equality in our bedroom that night, and gave her
part-ownership of the text and the picture. We are very happy
together.
We have all tried to improve, and I think I may say we have been
fairly successful.
More than once I have heard (one does hear many things people say
behind one's back) that new acquaintances--people who have only known
us lately--have expressed astonishment, not unmixed with a generous
indignation, on hearing that we were ever described by our friends
as--A VERY ILL-TEMPERED FAMILY.
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